We know by now that the Tory budget is leading to job cuts, holding back economic growth and damaging the public services we all rely on.  The Tories have broken their promise to be fair –  with tax increases and benefit cuts that will hit hardest at the people who can least afford it.  Their cuts also hit Swindon much harder than neighbouring authorities.

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Gordon Brown today launched Labour’s 5 pledges for the next parliament:

1. Secure the recovery and halve the deficit through economic growth, fair taxes and cuts to lower priority spending
2. Raise family living standards, keeping mortgage rates as low as possible; increasing tax credits for families with young children; providing new help for first-time buyers; and restore the link between the state pension and earnings from 2012.
3. Build a high tech economy, supporting businesses and industry to create 1 million more skilled jobs and modernising our infrastructure with High-Speed Rail, a Green Investment Bank and broadband access for all
4. Protect frontline investment in policing, schools, childcare and the NHS, with a new guarantee of cancer test results within a week.
5. Strengthen fairness in communities through an Australian style points-based system to control immigration; guaranteed education, apprenticeships and jobs for young people; and a crack down on anti-social behaviour.

In future weeks I’ll be looking at what these pledges mean to Swindon. Isnt it interesting that they’ve followed the web-design pioneered by Swindon Labour to present our pledges to the electorate of the Borough!

Victor Agarwal, Labour Candidate N Swindon.

See more details on the National Labour Pledges, or view the Youtube version.